Blog

I don’t care whether Sullinger starts; but I do think he should play with Garnett for at least four of Kevin’s five-minute stints. Consider this, the Celtics have two big men who are money on jumpers from either side of the top of the key—why would you force fit their playing together? Offensively it certainly makes sense to have one of them on the court at all times.

Defensively, the pairing of Garnett and Sullinger helps cover Jared’s liability (a liability at least until he adjusts to the stronger, longer athletes populating the NBA.) On offense it helps assure that Sully will not be covered by the biggest defender and he is already deadly efficient against coverage by players near his size. If there is a counter argument, it might be that it overlaps the court time of the two best rebounding big men on the team.

Perhaps there is a second contraindication. If Darko is to be the pivot point of the second unit with his passing out of the high post, then there is an argument that Sullinger is a much more potent low post threat than Bass. Unfortunately it pairs the two slowest-footed big men which would likely be a liability on defense.

If Wilcox is playing center for the second unit, then I think you have to like Brandon’s jumper as a complement near the high post. That brings us back to playing Sullinger with Garnett.

Let Brandon start and play until Garnett reenters the game after his first break. From then on play Sullinger when Kevin is in, and let Bass lend his firepower to the second unit.

As for the fourth quarter, Doc’s closers are a really interesting question. I think there are going to be a lot of garbage-time fourth periods this year, at least I hope so. This will offer additional rest to our thirty-something’s, and experience for the developing players. I don’t see Sullinger, as a rookie, as part of the best offensive/defensive unit that the C’s can put on the floor—at least not in November. Bass might not be in the finishing group either if Green continues to progress. Doc’s got a lot of package possibilities, it’s going to be fascinating to see how this develops.